


Culture Shock

by AradialSymmetry



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/F, Post-Sburb/Sgrub
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-21
Updated: 2015-03-21
Packaged: 2018-03-18 19:50:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3581757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AradialSymmetry/pseuds/AradialSymmetry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the game, the humans and trolls are sent to live on a new iteration of Earth. Aradia has just arrived and has barely even thought about her new home and her new life. Fortunately, Terezi had already been there for a little while, and is willing to help with what she's learned so far. Terezi takes Aradia out to lunch to try her favorite earth food and to talk about the future - and perhaps even a future together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Culture Shock

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Tasbine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tasbine/gifts).



Aradia groaned as she was awoken by a loud beeping coming from her phone on the nightstand nearby. She flailed around for a moment, pushing her blankets off from above her head, and lifting her face out of the comfortable spot it was nestled in on her pillow. She could see light streaming in around the edges of the curtains covering the nearby window. _Who would be calling me in the middle of the day?_ she wondered groggily for a moment. But soon she remembered - she was now on Earth - since this strange planet had a sun that was bright but not blindingly so, people here tended to be awake during the day. It still seemed kind of odd to her.

With a yawn, Aradia rolled over and rubbed her eyes, then grabbed at her phone to see who was bugging her. The screen announced that it was a text message from Terezi. 

H3Y M1SS SL33PY R4SPB3RRY 1M W4K1NG YOU UP SO YOU C4N G3T ON 4 NORM4L 34RTH SL33P SCH3DUL3 H3R3. 4LSO 1 W4NT3D TO T4K3 YOU OUT TO LUNCH 4ND 1M G3TT1NG HUNGRY!!! >:0~~~~

Aradia couldn't help but giggle as she put the phone down for a moment and stretched out some more. Though she wouldn't have minded some more sleep, she was glad that Terezi had taken such an interest in helping her adjust to their new planet! After all, it had only been a few earth days since she'd finally left the dreambubbles to move here permanently. 

The whole arrangement was going to take some getting used to, really. Not too long ago, Feferi and Rose had talked with some friendly horrorterrors and worked out a plan for them to create a new universe. They couldn't offer to create one where the kids and trolls got to be gods, like would have happened if they had won their games of Sburb or Sgrub, but the horrorterrors were able to create a new copy of the kids' universe, tweaked so that Aradia and her friends could enter it and live normal lives, more or less. 

In fact, the horrorterrors had made many copies of these universes, so that all of the remaining inhabitants of the dreambubbles could be moved somewhere without having to dump dozens of Nepetas on the same planet. So Aradia had worked feverishly to round up all of her dead friends and guide them to their new universes. Once that was done, she left the furthest ring for the last time and moved herself to this new universe, along with the other alpha-timeline instances of her friends.

Since then, Aradia was mostly catching up on some sleep and adjusting to her new life. Part of the deal with the horrorterrors was that everyone's powers would be toned down significantly, so that they could lead relatively "normal" Earth lives - so Aradia relinquished her ability to time travel, and while she still had some psionic powers, they were much more limited in range and effect. 

All of that change was going to take some getting used to, but it didn't seem so bad. With a yawn, Aradia focused on the nearby window, and used the psychic powers she did have to open the blinds. She squinted a bit at the bright outdoors until her eyes adjusted. She then sat up and stretched out, spreading her wings and floating herself out from under the covers. Aradia began to flutter her way over to the bathroom, but first she grabbed her phone to respond to Terezi.

okay okay im awake!! give me a little bit to get ready but then ill join you for lunch sure :D 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Not too much later, Aradia emerged from the bathroom, having cleaned herself up and gotten dressed in a version of her godtier outfit, and partially tamed the impressive case of bedhead her long hair had developed. She'd texted Terezi to say she was about ready - fortunately they wouldn't have to go far to meet up, since Terezi had arranged for Aradia to get an apartment in the same building as her! 

Aradia slid the door to her balcony open and walked outside. She looked down to see Terezi waiting in the courtyard several stories below. With a grin, Aradia fluttered her wings and floated herself off of the balcony and gently down to her friend. 

"Hi Terezi!" Aradia called out on the way down. Terezi turned to face her and conspicuously sniffed towards her, a wide smile growing across her face. Terezi extended her arms, and Aradia gladly floated into them to embrace her friend. "What's up?"

Terezi just giggled at first as she reciprocated the hug, burying her face against Aradia's shoulder and sniffing a bit more. "Good news, you still smell like a fresh raspberry! But with touch of Head & Shoulders shampoo and also that 'mountain breeze' laundry detergent we got the other day at the grocery store." Terezi paused for a moment, breaking the hug and stepping back. "I dunno why humans think mountain breezes smell so much like soap, though."

"I don't know either! You should ask them," Aradia said, with a chuckle of her own. "Anyway, I thought you'd said I smelled like cherries back when we were in the dreambubbles? Why am I a raspberry now?" 

"Hmph! I'll have you know that sniffing colors is a subtle science and it can take some time to pin down the exact scents! Especially when it comes to tasty red berries," Terezi said, starting off with a pout of mock offense but quickly returning to her usual grin. "Anyway, after careful consideration of the evidence I have determined you are in fact a raspberry. And that makes us flavor buddies, since I smell like a delicious blue raspberry slurpee!" 

"Oh! That's good, I think," Aradia replied, smiling and barely containing a giggle. She was never quite sure what to think about Terezi's declarations about colors and their scents, but at least it always seemed amusing. After a moment of consideration she raised her hand. "High-five for both being raspberry-flavored?" 

"High-five!" Terezi enthusiastically slapped Aradia's hand. "Anyway, all of this is making me really hungry! So let's get going and grab some lunch." 

"Sure, okay, sounds good to me. I'm kind of hungry too," Aradia patted her stomach. Terezi started to head out towards the street, and Aradia walked behind her. "Where are we going?" 

"We're going to get Indian food! It's the tastiest type of human food that I've found," Terezi replied excitedly, swinging her cane out in front of her and leading Aradia down the sidewalk. "There's so many flavors and colors!" 

"Ooh, that sounds nice! Humans have lots of good food, I think," Aradia replied. She'd only been on this planet for a few days, but the quality and variety of food had quickly impressed her - it was much better than anything that had been available on Alternia. And since Terezi had already been on Earth for a month or so, Aradia trusted that she'd already explored and discovered some of the tastiest things. "How far away is it?" 

"The restaurant is just a few blocks away!" Terezi sounded excited, speeding up her pace as they moved through a crosswalk and onwards. "Did you know that Indian food is supposed to be from India, and that's a totally different thing from Indiana? Humans are so weird with what they name things." 

"Um, okay, I don't know what an India or an Indiana is, really! I've only been here a couple days, remember?" 

"Well they're both Earth places! But Indiana is just kind of far away from where we are, and India is totally different and really far away." Terezi shrugged her shoulders. 

Aradia was about to respond when the two of them were interrupted by a large barking dog tugging at its leash in front of them. Terezi veered to the side and Aradia followed, while the young human girl holding the leash tugged her pet back and offered them an apologetic smile. 

"Huh, that girl's lusus must be very protective of her!" Aradia commented idly after they had safely passed by. To her surprise, Terezi responded by playfully whapping the back of her head with her cane.

"Humans don't have lusii! You need to learn these things if you're going to get used to living here," Terezi said, sticking out her tongue at Aradia. 

"Oh, right, yeah," Aradia was pretty sure she knew that, but the sight of the girl with the dog had momentarily disoriented her. "What was she doing with that woofbeast, then?" 

"See, humans sometimes have animals that they take care of that they call 'pets'! It's kind of backwards from how you'd expect it, actually, the humans act like lusii to the pets. Definitely weird," Terezi said, sounding kind of befuddled by the idea. "And ugh, did you know this planet doesn't have any dragons? I'd totally have one as a pet if I could." 

"That really is strange!" Aradia responded. She thought to herself for a moment more, then added, "Huh, I wonder how weird the humans find us?" 

"Kind of weird! They're pretty friendly about it, though. The horrorterrors gave us a good deal when it came to that," Terezi said, and Aradia nodded in response. Even though Aradia and her friends were the first trolls on Earth, the horrorterrors had arranged the new universe so that the humans were prepared to help them join their society, but otherwise didn't consider them to be especially noteworthy. It was certainly a relief to find that no one seemed to bat an eye at them for being trolls - Aradia had gotten a bit nervous when Dave had started talking about how much he expected the human 'tabloids' to go crazy about them. 

"Well, that's good! I haven't really gotten to have much of a conversation with any of the humans yet. Well, besides the ones we knew from before," Aradia replied. 

"You should try sometime! They're pretty interesting to get to know, and it's fun to talk about how different our cultures are," Terezi said. Then she abruptly stopped walking and turned to face the storefront next to them. "Anyway this is the restaurant!" 

Following that declaration, Terezi strode up to the door and pushed it open, and Aradia followed close behind. The restaurant was fairly small, with a few of the dozen or so tables already occupied. As they walked in, the hostess waved to Terezi. "Oh, welcome back, miss! Is it the two of you today?" 

"Hey! And yep, just me and her," Terezi responded cheerfully. The lady motioned for them to sit at a nearby table. "Oh man, I'm so hungry, this is going to be great!" Terezi said as she plopped down in one of the chairs and picked up the menu. 

"I hope so!" Aradia responded, sitting down in her own chair. She picked up the menu and opened it up, only to find herself mystified by all of the unfamiliarly-named items. Even the descriptions weren't too helpful - she knew what the meats and some of the vegetables were, but she didn't have the faintest clue of what to expect the final dish to be like. "Um, Terezi? Am I supposed to know what any of these things are?" 

Terezi had the menu up to her face and was carefully sniffing around, but after a moment she brought it down to reply to Aradia. "Not really, no. I just tried things and most of them were delicious! I can just order some things that I really liked and we can share, if you'd want." She finished her declaration with a delighted cackle, then went back to sniffing over the menu.

"Um, sure, that's probably the best way to do it," Aradia said, putting down her menu. She sat there and waited for a little while longer as Terezi continued to hold the menu in front of the face to peruse it. Soon enough, a waiter appeared at their table and introduced himself; when he asked if they were ready to order Aradia motioned to defer to her friend.

"Yep we're ready! I'll just order a bunch of stuff for both of us," Terezi responded excitedly. "How about... Chicken tikka masala, vegetable korma, saag paneer, and malai kofta! And an assorted naan basket, and one mango lassi for each of us." The waiter scribbled all of this down and headed off to the back as quickly as he had appeared. 

"Wow, that sounded like a lot of food," Aradia said, somewhat bewildered by the long list that Terezi had rattled off. 

Terezi giggled in response. "It is! But that just means you get to try a bunch of things and I get to take home lots of leftovers. It'll be great!" 

"Oh, okay!" Aradia replied. Her stomach was starting to growl, so getting to try a bunch of different food sounded plenty appealing. But, she decided, it would probably be better to talk about something else for the moment to keep their minds off of waiting for their lunch to be served. After a moment of thought, she asked, "So, Terezi, what sort of stuff have you been doing here on earth anyway? I should probably find some fun things to do now that I'm getting settled in!"

"Oh, there's lots of cool stuff! I mean, getting to meet humans and learning about their customs is pretty important. And I've made some human friends that have been teaching me how to cook all of this delicious earth food I've tried!" Terezi paused to giggle gleefully. "And I've been trying out lots of video games, those are fun. Oh, and also I've been figuring out how to start going to earth college!" 

"Oh wow that sounds like a lot! And it must be so much fun!" Aradia said with a grin. Terezi's enthusiasm about all of the things she was doing was infectious, and Aradia found herself leaning towards her friend and fluttering her wings in excitement. "But what's earth college?" 

"It's a type of human schoolblock! For humans that are about eight sweeps - err, I mean, eighteen earth years. The education system is different from Alternia but I've been looking into it and we could fit into one of these 'colleges'." Terezi grinned, leaning on the table as well.

"Oh, I see! I guess you were always excited about going to legislacerator training. I doubt they have anything like that, here, though? What do you learn about in one of these 'colleges', anyway?" Aradia asked curiously.

"Everything! It's pretty awesome," Terezi continued, gesturing with her hands. "You start out taking classes on lots of things, and then later on you take more specialized ones in some particular subject you really like. The whole thing is supposed to take two sweeps... four earth years. At least for humans most of the time."

"Oh, that does sound like fun. Could I learn about archaeology?" Aradia fluttered her wings again in excitement at the idea. She thought for a moment longer, then asked, "But how do we go to one of these human colleges? Are they open for trolls?" 

"Yeah! They've set up a process for us to enroll. We just might have to take some extra classes on things like earth history to get caught up on those. I'm planning on starting at a college nearby here! I've been studying for the placement exams," Terezi said with a proud smile. She then giggled a bit and added, "The only thing their accommodations for Alternian-Americans doesn't cover is that they won't let me write assignments in my quirk!" 

"Oh, what ever will you do?" Aradia said sarcastically before breaking into hearty laughter. Once she finished, she continued on enthusiastically, "But that sounds really cool! What sort of things are you going to learn about?" 

"I told you, everything!" Terezi stuck out her tongue. "I definitely want to take classes on human history and culture! And also human law of course, but that's mostly later on. Maybe some math to keep my logical reasoning sharp... And maybe even some archaeology if I have a certain raspberry study buddy!" 

"Ooh, yes that sounds great! I want to see how humans do archaeology, it's probably a lot different than on Alternia! Less plundering of artifacts I'm sure," Aradia said, fluttering her wings enthusiastically again. "I want to learn lots of human topics, really! This 'college' thing sounds like it would be really interesting." 

"Yeah!" Terezi said. "You should totally do it with me! I think Sollux and Feferi want to, too. Sollux wants to study human computer science and Feferi wants to do earth marine biology. Of course."

"Of course," Aradia replied with a giggle, pausing for a moment to collect her thoughts. She and Terezi talked about the logistics of possible college plans for a little while longer, but were soon interrupted by their waiter returning with a tray of food. He set out all of the things Terezi had ordered on the table, and after checking that everything seemed right he quickly scooted away. 

"Oh wow, there's so much stuff," Aradia looked over the arrangement of food in front of them somewhat bewildered. 

"Yeah! Oh man, this is going to be so good," Terezi said, reaching out to the basket of naan to grab a piece of the flatbread. She then moved to one of the bowls of curry and took a spoonful of morsels coated in a vibrant yellow sauce from it. Terezi dumped it on the piece of naan and brought it up to her mouth, taking a huge bite. 

"Huh, is that how you eat this? You spread the stuff in the sauce on these pieces of bread?" Aradia said curiously, reaching out to the basket. There looked to be a variety of different toppings on the pieces of naan there. Aradia picked up one dotted with small specks of some sort of green topping, and took a fairly large bite of the corner of the bread. To her surprise, it was really spicy! Aradia gasped a bit, and her cheeks reddened from the unexpected heat. 

Terezi giggled. "Oh, you found the chili pepper naan! Yeah, that one's spicy. The other ones aren't like that, though." She then pointed towards the beverage that had been set out in front of Aradia. "You can drink some of the mango lassi! That helps with the spice." 

Aradia nodded, and after swallowing the piece of chili-laden bread she slurped at the thick orange beverage. Sure enough it drowned out the lingering spice, and Aradia found herself taking a few more sips. "Oh, that's really good!" 

"Yeah! I told you, it's all great! Except maybe the chili naan if you don't like spicy stuff that much," Terezi grinned. She picked up the offending piece of bread off of Aradia's plate to take it for herself, and replaced it with another piece of naan from the basket. "This one is garlic naan! It's not spicy at all and is really delicious." 

Aradia nibbled hesitantly at the new piece of bread, and found herself agreeing with Terezi's assessment. "Oh, that is good! And then I put some of these other things on top of it and eat that?" 

"Yep! Or you can put them on rice." Terezi demonstrated by scooping a heap of rice onto her plate and topping it with the orange-sauced curry. "This one's called chicken tikka masala! And that yellow one was the vegetable korma." 

"Hmm, what about this one?" Aradia poked at the green bowl of curry a bit, before deciding to scoop a bit onto her piece of naan. 

"That's saag paneer! It's made of spinach. And the white cubes in it are paneer, which is a kind of cheese. It's so great," Terezi patted her stomach before chomping on another big forkful of food from her plate.

Aradia brought the curry-topped naan to her mouth and took a tentative bite. "Huh, that's really interesting! I don't think I've tasted anything like that before," she remarked, before continuing to nibble. 

The two girls proceeded to eat without talking for a little while, with Aradia sampling all of the dishes in front of her and Terezi scarfing down on the things she already knew she loved. Finally, once they had both started to tame their curiosity and hunger, Aradia decided to continue the conversation from before. "So... you said that you want to study human law but you can't do that right away? How does that work?" 

Terezi nibbled for a bit longer at the piece of naan she was holding, then replied. "Oh, it's just how the human education system is set up. You go to one of these colleges, and then after that you can go to something called law school! And there you learn how to be a lawyer, which is... kind of a human equivalent of a legislacerator." 

Aradia couldn't help but giggle. "Oh, yes, something called a 'law school' sounds exactly like where you'd want to go." She then thought for a moment longer, and a small frown crossed her face. "But, I mean, don't humans do law a lot differently than we did on Alternia? I don't think they have anything like legislacerators, really. And I'm not sure they'd appreciate if - Ow!" Aradia was interrupted by Terezi lightly smacking her arm with her cane. 

"Of course it's different! I was just mentioning legislacerators since I didn't think you knew much about human laws. I've been reading all about the human legal system since I've gotten here, sheesh, did you really think I wouldn't?" Terezi gave an exaggerated pout, before pausing to take a long slurp of her mango lassi. "Anyway you know very well that I'm a lady of the law, whatever the law may be! And since we're on Earth, that means we follow Earth laws, and I'll be an awesome Earth lawyer."

"Okay, okay, sheesh!" Aradia batted at Terezi's cane until the other girl finally put it down. She then returned to poking at the food on her plate with a fork. "So what does an Earth lawyer do anyway?"

"They can do lots of things!" Terezi responded so eagerly that she didn't even finish chewing her last bite of food. "Some of them prosecute criminals in court! Well, or people they think are criminals - that's why there's other lawyers to defend them. So it's sort of like a lawyer battle in court!" Terezi grinned widely at the idea, rubbing her hands together in excitement. "And then there's judges for those trials, who are also lawyers. And other lawyers deal with lots of complicated laws about how businesses can be run and how taxes work and how all sorts of other things are regulated. And also there's lawyers who help write new laws or help find if there's any problem with old ones. And... well lots of other types too!" 

"Wow, that sounds complicated," Aradia said, having not really gained much of an idea of what human lawyers did. "Well, what sort of things would you want to do as a lawyer?" 

"I don't really know! There's so many cool options," Terezi said, pausing for a moment to think. "Hmmm! I might want to be a prosecutor to start, that would be fun. But eventually I hope that I could get appointed as a judge. And if I'm really good at laws, maybe I could be the first troll appointed to the supreme court!" 

"Oh!" Aradia sounded impressed. "What's the supreme court? It sounds important."

"It is! It's the most important court in the country," Terezi grinned. "They get to decide whether laws are actually legal or not! There's nine people on it, and to get appointed you need to be a really really important and good lawyer or judge." 

"Wait, how can laws be illegal? That doesn't make any sense," Aradia looked quizzically at her friend before returning her attention to her food. 

"It's kind of complicated! But basically there's lots of parts of the government that can make various sorts of laws or rules, but some of them might end up not being allowed by bigger, more important laws. It's weird, but it kind of makes sense since it isn't like there's an empress here who can just decide everything herself," Terezi shrugged, before piling a bunch of food onto a piece of naan and taking a large bite. 

"Huh. Well, maybe you'll have to explain more about this later, I think all of this human law stuff is too much for me right now," Aradia said. "I should really look up what human archaeologists do sometime!"

Terezi nodded and gave a murmur of agreement, but seemed to have drifted off onto other thoughts about human laws. Aradia didn't mind a lull in conversation, though - she took the opportunity to eat a bit more, and to think about what Earth things she might like to do. It seemed so exciting to learn about all of the possibilities! 

The two pondered in silence for a bit longer, continuing to eat until they were both just about done with their meal. Finally, Terezi broke the silence. "Hey, Aradia!" she said, her usual enthusiastic tone hiding just a hint of trepidation, and Aradia looked up to see a light teal blush on her friend's cheeks. "So yeah I'm not sure if there's a non-weird time or way to ask this! But you're a really cool friend and also a cute and delicious raspberry and I've been feeling kind of flushed for you. So, um, would you want to go out on an Earth date?" Terezi broke into a hopeful grin.

"Oh!" Aradia was a bit surprised by the sudden question. But not too much - she and Terezi had certainly become closer friends lately, and on occasion Aradia's mind had idly wandered to thinking about Terezi as a potential matesprit. But things had been so hectic recently, and dating wasn't something she had the time to think about seriously until right now. It didn't take long to consider, though. "Um, sure! That sounds like it could be fun!" Aradia smiled back at her friend - now her date, perhaps - and looked the girl over. She had to admit that Terezi was pretty cute when she grinned like that! 

Terezi cackled delightedly in response. "Great!" She leaned forward on the table with a smile. Aradia did the same, and reached her hand out to put it on top of Terezi's, prompting both girls to giggle happily. 

"So what would you want to do for our Earth date? And when?" Aradia asked excitedly. She had various vague ideas of her own, but figured it would be better to see what her friend had in mind - since Terezi had already been here a while she certainly would know more things they could do. 

"Well, I was thinking we could hang out this afternoon! Maybe make our lunch here retroactively a date, if that isn't too weird," Terezi stuck out her tongue playfully.

"Alright! As the expert on time here, I'd say a retroactive date sounds like a great idea," Aradia replied with a giggle. "I didn't really have anything in mind for this afternoon anyway! So spending it with you sounds like fun." 

"Wonderful!" Terezi said. "Well hmm, there's a really nice park nearby, we could go for a walk through there and along the stream nearby. It smells so nice around there!" She paused paused to think for a moment. "Though we might want to wait to digest all of this delicious food for a while - maybe we could go back to my place and watch some human TV or movies? And snuggle up on the couch," she added, following the last part with a giggle.

"Ooh, that sounds nice! Let's do it!" Aradia's grin widened as she thought about it, and her wings started fluttering in excitement again, prompting Terezi to smile widely too.

"Aww, you smell so adorable when you do that with your wings!" Terezi said. "I'm glad I can put my mind powers to good use coming up with nice romantic date ideas that you love!" She stuck out her tongue again and gave a lighthearted cackle. "Anyway, do you think you're done with lunch? How about I pack up the rest of the food here and we get going?" 

"Oh yes, your mind powers have me swooning here!" Aradia said playfully, with a hearty laugh. She then looked around the table - there was still quite a bit of food left, but she was feeling just about full at this point. She picked up her fork and poked at the little bit left on her plate, taking a bite and following it by taking a last slurp of her mango lassi. "And yes I think I'm just about done!" 

"Alright then!" Terezi slid out of her chair and went over to their waiter, who was by the hostess stand. Aradia watched as Terezi handed over a credit card to pay, then carefully sniffed over the receipt before signing it. Then the waiter gave her an assortment of plastic containers, which she brought back to the table and quickly started to fill with the leftover food. "Oh man, these are going to be great to have for lunch tomorrow!" 

"Yum!" Aradia said, grabbing some of the remaining bowls of curry and helping to pack them. "I might have to stop by your apartment to eat some, then," she said with a giggle.

Terezi gasped in mock indignation. "So you openly admit to wanting to steal my delicious leftovers? I would have you arrested, if I didn't just ask you on a date!" She then broke out into giggles. 

"Pfffft!" Aradia stuck out her tongue at Terezi. "Maybe I should just flap my wings in front of your face until you're so happy about the raspberry smell that you willingly give me your food!" 

Terezi gasped again. "Coercion! That's even worse than thievery!" she cackled, as she placed the containers of leftovers into a plastic bag. Then she stood up and turned towards the door, grabbing her cane. Terezi turned her head back to Aradia with a smile. "So shall we?" 

"Sure, let's go!" Aradia stood up and followed Terezi as they walked out of the restaurant, waving goodbye to the hostess on the way out. Aradia blinked a few times to get used to the bright sun outside. "So back to your place for now, right?" 

"Soon! First we need to stop for ice cream," Terezi said, a wide grin growing across her face again. "Oh man, I'm gonna get a big bowl with two scoops!" 

"Hey, why didn't you tell me we were going for ice cream? I might eaten a little less in the restaurant," Aradia protested.

"Hmm. I concede that was a negligent omission from my briefings," Terezi frowned. "But I'm sure you can find some room for delicious, delicious ice cream?" 

"Maybe," Aradia said, patting her stomach. "Or... Maybe I'll just take a bit of yours!" She walked up to Terezi's back and put her arms around the girl, embracing her and nuzzling her forehead up to Terezi's cheek. 

Terezi giggled happily, turning towards Aradia and reciprocating the affectionate gesture. "The prosecutor agrees to this settlement!" She paused to sniff conspicuously at Aradia's red outfit again. "But in that case I might need to get three scoops! And you better help me with that extra ice cream." 

"Alright, sounds good," Aradia said with a smile, squeezing Terezi one more time before letting go of the hug. "So where's this ice cream place?" 

"Just around the block over here!" Terezi motioned with her cane. "Let's go! But, you take this." She held out the bag of leftovers. Aradia took it, not sure what Terezi was going for until the girl grabbed her free hand. Terezi interlaced her fingers between Aradia's with a smile, and then headed off towards the ice cream shop, holding her cane in front of her with one arm and tugging Aradia along behind with the other.

**Author's Note:**

> I had a lot of fun writing this, and I hope you enjoyed reading it! All of the prompts were tempting, but I couldn't not go with the one involving my favorite two characters. And I really liked the idea of Terezi showing Aradia around Earth and telling her what she'd picked up so far (correct or not). And that meant I got to indulge some of my favorite headcanons about Terezi - that she would love how varied and delicious earth cuisine was and would become a major foodie (with Indian being her favorite, of course), and that she'd be eaget to jump into studying and practicing law in whatever culture she lived in (and probably be super successful at it)!


End file.
